GREEN LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION: AN ANALYSIS OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has developed in higher education as it aims to provide students with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes necessary for addressing environmental and sustainability challenges. In higher education, curriculum is a key factor in introducing prospective teachers to the idea of sustainability and building capacities that might enable them to help facilitate environmentally responsible leadership. This study aimed to explore how the Educational Leadership and Management (ELM) program is aligned to green leadership as reflected in the environment SDG of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Content analysis was used for data analysis. The outline of the BS ELM courses served as the first source of data. The course titles, course descriptions, learning outcomes and course contents were carefully analyzed and assessed for explicit and implicit mentions of environmental sustainability and its connection to green leadership. The researcher concluded that there was presence of concepts related to environmental sustainability in the courses, but that these concepts were not consistently integrated throughout the BS ELM curriculum. The researcher suggests that curriculum developers and higher education institutions enhance sustainability-related topics and learning opportunities, as a means to better equip future education leaders to be “green leaders.”